Erev B’har-B’chukkotai 5777
Optimism Finds Torah Everywhere
Rabbi Aaron Goldstein 19 May 2017
Leviticus 26:3
If you follow My laws OR If you walk in My ways, and faithfully observe My commandments...
ח ב אם־ יק כת ת י ול ומר ש ת ואת־מצות םש וע :אתם ית
I am unsure whether it is just me, but I hear so much that is negative: In electioneering I rarely get to hear that a manifesto pledge has prospects because the shouts from all angles trying to unpick and disprove are so loud. Has positive campaigning disappeared? This week in listening to congregants I have heard fears expressed of anti-‐Semitism from the left, of loneliness and desertion, through to the threat of nuclear war led by Kim Jong-‐un and Donald Trump. Almost an apologetic whisper were the thanks expressed for the treatment congregants had received from the NHS or for the rain watering our gardens and filling our reservoirs. This morning I heard a doctor asked whether the complaints from local “English” residents were greater now than before a sizeable incoming of Polish people had arrived for work. She responded that they whinged as much 25 years ago as they do now! I found a dose of positive thinking in a comment of the Sefat Emet, the Gerer Rebbe’s on the opening words of B’chukkotai: Leviticus 26:3
If you follow My laws OR If you walk in My ways, and faithfully observe My commandments...
ח ב אם־ יק כת ת י ול ומר ש ת ואת־מצות םש וע :אתם ית
“The Midrash [the Sefat Emet notes], quotes the verse, “Death and life are in the hands of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).” It goes on to quote Ben Sira (C. 2 BCE, Hellenisitc Jewish scribe), who told of one who found a glowing ember and blew on it, lighting up a flame. He then spat on it and it was extinguished. This ember is to be found everywhere; it is the spark of Torah, which is called fire. The word for ember (gachelet) is numerically equivalent to truth (emet). Truth refers only to Torah, by which everything was created. Thus the ember is to be found everywhere, in everything.”
As Art Green notes, today the Charedi world would consider this a radical, perhaps even heretical thought: that Torah is in everything, encouraging even the most devout to see Torah in science, art, and the secular ‘enlightened’ world. Whilst the Sefat Emet is horribly particular in placing the potential to identify this spark in everything to Jews, universalised the following makes sense to me: It is written: “God blew the breath of life into humanity’s nostrils and adam became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).” “Living soul” is translated by the Targum (ancient Aramaic translation of the Torah): “a speaking soul.” We have the power in our mouths to awaken the life that lies everywhere. That is why in our verse, “If you walk in My ways,” can be read as “working at Torah,” This means making a real effort to find words of Torah everywhere, to seek out the stamp and imprint of Torah that is to be found in every place. Sometimes it is a struggle to find goodness, something to hold on to and to feel positive about. If we consider Torah as one of the central planks of Judaism, our Truth: The story of our People, of who we are then when we look at our own actions and define them in such terms, we find Torah in our lives. We come to define Torah. As Liberal Jews in particular we then observe that positive force all around us for as we communicate positivity we help others observe sparks. On visiting Lviv, Ukraine last Shabbat, I experienced a community who on paper had far more to complain about than us, yet exuded a joy and positivity that belied their situation and I could not help but be enthused. I felt illuminated by their joy of celebrating Shabbat, their culture, the Hebrew language, of being able to just be together in a gathering without immediate fear or suspicion: They saw goodness, they found Torah in all that they pursued in their community centre. Tonight as we celebrate life, our Jewish identity and warmth within the body of family and community, may we leave open to the sparks evident all around. And may we be conduits, encouraging and affirming our fortune through our expressions of that which is undoubtedly good. Amen